Bodies of water near populated areas are more often than not subject to pollution from both chemical and solid waste. Many inventions have been addressed to the removal of oil slicks or other chemical films which float on the water surface. Among these are the floating weirs of McHugh, Jr. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,458 issued Sep. 20, 1983) and Wessels (U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,592 issued Feb. 7, 1989). Both of these systems are remote from the pumping unit, being connected by a suction hose, and are similar to well-known pool cleaners. Another system is that of Shubert (U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,833 issued Jul. 22, 1986) which is a floating trough for removal of effluent fluid at a predetermined level beneath the surface of the water. While advances have been addressed to liquid separation, solid waste is still primarily dealt with by manually collecting the debris with nets.
Agglomerations of solid waste in bodies of water are most obvious in marinas and harbors. Since these areas are heavily used, individuals and businesses who use these areas are often guilty of carelessly discarding used containers, paper, plastic bags and other garbage, which end up in the water. Added to this pollution are plant debris and dead birds or sea life. In harbors and marinas, localized currents can cause the floating debris to collect in small areas, resulting in unsightly and unsanitary masses of garbage many yards in diameter. Exacerbating these conditions are water intakes for utilities or industrial facilities which create currents drawing the floating debris toward a collection area. The debris can then clog the grates over the intakes, resulting in damage to the intake system and the equipment that the water is used to drive or cool.
Pool skimmers and other floating-matter removing apparatus are designed primarily to separate floating liquid pollutants from water. While they may be able to collect small floating debris (bugs, leaves) they are too small and lightweight to handle the large type of debris typically found in marinas and harbors, and too complex to simply scale up to accommodate such large debris.
Further, a pool skimmer-type system would, if scaled up, have such a large, powerful pump that it could be a hazard to marine life, possibly drawing in birds and fish that swim too close to the device. To protect against this by including filters would then eliminate the device's ability to collect large floating debris. Also of concern is the fact that the weight of a device for removing large debris could be enough to capsize a boat or tear off a section of the dock to which it is attached. Thus, care must be taken in installation of stationary units.
The obstacles involved in creating a system for removal of floating debris from large bodies of water are numerous. It would be desirable to provide a device which overcomes these obstacles and is capable of removing large amounts of the most prevalent form of debris, e.g., metal, glass bottles, paper and plastic containers and bags, found in these bodies of water. The present invention is such a device.